Hansard

Prison Chaplains

Volume 450: debated on Thursday 26 October 2006

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Derek Conway

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time stipendiary chaplains are working in the Prison Service in England and Wales; how many are (i) Christian, (ii) Jewish, (iii) Muslim, (iv) Hindu, (v) Sikh, and (vi) of other religions; and what the total cost was to public funds of providing prison chaplaincy services in the last year for which figures are available. (87325)

Mr. Sutcliffe

The following table details the number of full and part-time chaplains employed in both public and contracted prisons in England and Wales. The data do not include chaplains who provide services on a sessional basis. The total cost of providing prison chaplaincy services is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Number of full-time and part-time chaplains employed in both public and contracted prisons in England and Wales

Full-time1, 2

Part-time1, 2

Unknown work pattern3

Christian

188

111

15

Jewish

0

1

0

Muslim

29

7

3

Hindu

1

0

1

Sikh

0

1

0

Other religions

0

2

1

Total

218

122

20

1 Information for the public sector Prison Service does not include sessional chaplains. 2 Information for contracted prisons has been obtained from individual contractors. 3 For certain contracted prisons, information on work patterns was not available.